Friday, January 18, 2013

TV logo round-up: July-December 2012

A bit late, but here's the fourth instalment of our "TV logo round-up" that tracks logo changes in television in the second half of 2012. As usual, if you think there's anything significant missing, feel free to post a comment below.

TV One (United States)
African-American cable network launched a new look with an improved logo in August.

Yesterday
Yesterday, a UK channel dedicated to history programming and entertainment, launched a new look on July 24. Created by DixonBaxi, it introduces a green "Y" icon in different materials that can have different things made to it.

Yu (Russia)
On July 26, it was announced that Russian music network Muz-TV would stop broadcasting on regular terrestrial frequencies an instead be replaced by a youth channel called Yu (Ю in Russian). BDA Creative created the on-air look for the new network that launched in September.

eNCA
South African news channel eNews Channel Africa became available in the United Kingdom on August 19 and took the opportunity to shorten its name to eNCA.

RTL5
Two of the four general entertainment channels operated by RTL in the Netherlands launched new logos on August 27. Where the channels had previously a unified visual identity with logos based on the same template, they now diverged with distinctly different looks. RTL also commissioned different agencies to work on the different channels. Fro the entertainment-focused RTL5, an agency called Grump created a bold red numeral that could be inserted into different situations, while the female-skewing RTL8 got pink look created by Terra Lemon.

CTC
STS is the most-watched TV network in Russian that isn't owned by the state. On September 15, it unburdened itself of the clunky shiny logo and replaced it with a very bright yellow one. BDA Creative in London helped finalise the graphics package, although they may not have been behind the logo.

Sky PerfecTV!
Japan's leading satellite television platform Sky PerfecTV! introduced a refreshed logo in September. It appears the old "tadpole" mascot has been retired and a new typeface with rounded corners has been introduced.

D8 and D17
French premium broadcaster Canal+ has long wished to become an serious player in free-to-air television. Preferring not to launch a new national channel from scratch, they bought the struggling national entertainment channel Direct 8 and its sister channel Direct Star. The deal was finalised in September when the new names D8 and D17. The two channels relaunched on October 7. D8's visual identity was created by Neville Brody's Research Studios while LA broadcast branding agency Troika gave life to the new look on screen.

Univision
On October 17, it was announced that Univision was about to launch a new corporate identity on January 1. Developed by Wolff Olins, it features an updated version of the classic stylised U icon that the network had used for two decades.

CBS Reality, CBS Drama, CBS Action and CBS Europa
In October, it was announced that several European thematic channels would be rebranded to include the CBS brand in their names on December 3. This introduced the names CBS Reality, CBS Drama, CBS Action and CBS Europa many countries on European continent. The three former brands were already available in the UK.

Galavisión
The most watched Spanish language TV channel in the US launched a new logo on November 4, as part of the rebranding efforts of its owner, Univision. PMcD Design are credited for creating this new logo.

HD1
France was about to get six new national TV channels on December 12 after the government had awarded new licenses earlier this year. One of the most anticipated was HD1, backed by the country's largest broadcaster, TF1. After a few months being identified with this red pre-launch logo, the proper launch identity was unveiled in November. Dream On was the agency behind HD1's launch look.

RMC Découverte
Another new French national channel was a factual channel called RMC Découverte, which launched with this rudimentary logo.

Cozi TV
NBC gave up on its local news channels that had been branded "NBC Nonstop" and launched a new network called Cozi TV on December 20. It mainly features a mix of old TV series, movies and lifestyle programs.

ITV
After Britain's largest commercial broadcaster, ITV, had confirmed that their flagship channel would change its name from ITV1 to ITV, they revealed a fresh new colour-changing logo on November 15. The entire rebrand was devised by an in-house team.

Numéro 23
Yet another of of the six new channels to receive a broadcast license in France was called "TVous La Télédiversité". They wisely decided to go by a different name for the eventual launch on Decenmber 12. The name "Numéro 23", referencing the channel number, was revealed during the autumn along with a clunky 3D logo.

Illusion+
Illusion+, a Russian movie channel owned by the same company that owns Russkiy Illusion mentioned above, followed suit on December 1 and launched a new look with a logo aligned with its sister channel.

7'eren
Danish commercial broadcaster SBS announced on December 3 that it would pull the plug on its struggling music channel The Voice TV and replace it with a new interactive youth channel called 7'eren ("the Seven"). The new channel launched on January 1.

UniMás
Univision also owns the second most watched Hispanic TV network in Spain, Telefutura. On December 3, it was announced that it would be renamed UniMás in January. It relaunched with a new logo designed by Troika Design Group in January.